Keith Olbermann: 'When They Go Low, We Get Baseball Bats'
Call it the Democratic Double Standard – for D-Listers.
Former MSNBC anchor and all-around leftist nutcase Keith Olbermann took to a podcast last week to openly call for violence against Republicans aiming to use their new House majority to investigate Democratic treachery against their own country.
The silence was deafening from the liberal media, which would have flipped into outrage mode if a conservative had even hinted at the tactic.
According to Fox News, Olbermann took the leap into inflammatory rhetoric Wednesday in an interview on the podcast “Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast.”
“I wish the Democrats would play that game to 10 percent of the levels that Republicans do …,” Olbermann said, according to Fox.
“Until the Democrats stop rolling over for this and saying ‘we’re not going to dirty our hands, when they go high, we go low.’ When they go low, we get baseball bats. That should be the next. Let’s get Obama out here saying when they go low, we get baseball bats. I think that would solve this completely.”
The “we go high” reference was to a speech by former first lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in July 2016, where she declared, “when they go low, we go high.”
As in all things Obama, it earned rave reviews at the time. Of course, at the time, Democrats were expecting their then-nominee Hillary Clinton to sail to a coronation in the November election. When that didn’t pan out — thanks to God and the American voter — things got a little less idealistic on the left.
It was only two years later, remember, that Eric Holder, the chief law enforcement in the country under the Obama administration, twisted Michelle Obama’s motto to say, “When they go low, we kick ’em,” as The Washington Post reported in October 2018.
“That’s what this new Democratic Party is about,” Holder said, perhaps portending more than anyone realized at the time about future progressive tactics.
Well, in the world according to Olbermann, the new, new Democratic Party is about something even more forceful — Louisville Sluggers hitting where it hurts.
Among the establishment media, the reaction was muted enough to make crickets heard. (Had a Joe Rogan or any conservative said anything similar, on any platform, it would have been all over the Christmas weekend airwaves.)
But on the right, the statement brought new attention to the establishment media’s habit of ignoring violent statements when they come from the favored end of the political spectrum.
For Olbermann himself, though, the reaction was mostly mockery.
Another prime example of the inclusive and caring attitude of the left
— Dean Olsen (@DMO1960) December 22, 2022
Smith and Wesson beats Louisville Slugger, Keith
— Bluedruid1 (@Bluedruid11) December 22, 2022
Baseball bats you say. Hmmm, that’s not something I’d want as my primary weapon but you do you…
— Peni Penn Penny’s Dad (@rctoddjr59) December 22, 2022
Good thing absolutely no one listens or pays attention to him.
— Dave Dermody (@DaveDermody) December 22, 2022
Now it’s true that Olbermann has fallen far from his prime. And even in his prime, the frothing-at-the-mouth liberal wasn’t exactly on anyone’s A-List of celebrity names. But now he’s gone from nightly political commentary on MSNBC (a prime-time slot for progressives) to hosting a daily podcast that doubtless draws a fraction of the audience he used to have. According to the marketing data firm Edison Research, he’s not in the top 50 listened-to podcasts in the country. (The outspoken, if contrarian, Rogan is No. 1, not surprisingly.)
These days, Olbermann is lucky if he gets offensive enough to be banned from Twitter by Elon Musk. At least it gets his name out there.
Even among liberal podcasts, he’s tough to find on any list. (Granted, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” wasn’t up and running until August, so maybe he’ll be a force to be reckoned with … next year.)
Still, a once-prominent — not so say influential — voice on the American left issued an open call for baseball-bat-powered thuggery in the service of the Democratic Party, and the response was a shrug.
It’s part of a pattern of double standards that’s obvious to anyone who follows politics and the American media. From the right, any statement that’s remotely inflammatory is “insurrectionist.” From the left, even actions that are conceivably deadly — like, say, an assassination plot against a sitting Supreme Court justice – are greeted with a yawn.
It’s predictable, of course, but poison is predictable, too. That doesn’t make it any less dangerous.
Even D-Listers like Olbermann deserve more attention. They can do damage, too.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
